During lunch with antagonist Lord Henry Wotton, a lesser character in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray remarks: “If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.”
This explains why geniuses often get themselves into trouble: They’ve got the wits but lack the manners.
Robert Oppenheimer once humiliated a high-ranking politician who, in return, destroyed his career. Steve Jobs managed to get ousted from the company he founded. Ayn Rand made no secret of her views to anyone and, as a result, probably had more difficult conversations in her life than easy ones.
A gentle man or lady, meanwhile, can go through life mostly unharmed but also entirely unnoticed. Still, to most it is, and perhaps should be, enough. There’s nothing wrong with an ordinary life.
Where genius and consistent kindness walk hand in hand, we see the 1% of the 1%. No one is immune to controversy, but the few who make a splash without getting others wet in the process? Those are most worthy of our admiration, observation, and, if we can swing it, emulation.
Keep looking for genius with manners.
